WASHINGTON, D.C. – The University of Scranton women's lacrosse team (9-2, 4-0 Landmark) led wire-to-wire in a 12-8 victory over the Catholic Cardinals (5-6, 3-1 Landmark) in a rematch of the Landmark Conference title game on Saturday afternoon at Carlini Field in Washington, D.C.
Scranton now holds sole possession of first place in the conference standings and is the only team that remains unbeaten in Landmark play.
The Royals scored the first four goals of the game including two from freshman Jillian Lopez (Sayville, N.Y./St. Anthony's) and the latter of her two goals opened a 4-0 lead with 2:49 left in the first quarter. Catholic responded by scoring the final goal of the period and the first two in the second to trim the deficit to one at 4-3. From there, Lopez answered for the Royals less than a minute later and junior Grace Lane (Long Beach, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy) added two goals in the final six minutes of the quarter to take a 7-4 lead into the locker room.
Lopez and senior Erin Reich (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) each scored in the first five minutes of the third quarter and Scranton held Catholic to just one goal in the quarter. Freshman Eileen Hewitt (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) and senior Devyn Tanajewski (Ringwood, N.J./Lakeland Regional) each found the back of the net in the later stages of the period to extend the advantage to 11-5 for the time being. The Cardinals scored three of the four goals in the fourth quarter, but were unable to get any closer than four as the Royals preserved the victory.
Offensively for Scranton, Lopez led the way with four goals and the trio of Hewitt, Lane and Reich added two goals apiece. Lane also added two assists on the day and Tanajewski recorded a goal, assist, four ground balls and six draw controls.
Hewitt led the team in both ground balls (five) and caused turnovers (three), while Lopez notched three draw controls of her own.
Junior Lauren Boldis (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun) recorded eight saves in goal.
The Royals will return home to host Drew in a Landmark matchup on Wednesday afternoon at Weiss Field with opening draw slated for 4 p.m.
--ROYALS--
